July 02, 2010

To Build A Fire

And . . . Man vs. Nature. By the way, the above online compendium invites readers to contribute a story conflict that doesn't fit into the above 7 categories. Taking the terms literally, I can think of one right off the top of my head: man vs. woman.

OK OK . . . that was a "joke" - this is about the classic plot conflict of man and woman and child vs. nature.

Implicit in these stories is the approach and assumptions of the author. Is "nature" an adversary with a motive and goals? The classic story that is taught as an example of this plot is Jack London's story "To Build A Fire." This story contains numerous accurate details of extreme sub-zero weather. The unnamed protagonist, "man," (some feel that the dog, who survives the ordeal, is a better hero - I tend to agree) experiences many events that would strike terror and set off survival alarms in the heads of more experienced or less hubris-filled artic circle travelers.

I've advised people who are creating hostile (or maybe just different) science-fictional worlds to read "To Build A Fire" and pay careful attention to the use of language that indicates not just "mood," but sets mood as it also communicates environmental facts that menace the protagonist from the beginning of his journey to its fateful end.

For example, right in the first paragraph: "There was no sun or hint
of sun, though there was not a cloud in the sky. It was a clear day, and yet
there seemed an intangible pall over the face of things, a subtle gloom that
made the day dark, and that was due to the absence of sun."

A "literary" explication would refer to darkness, gloom, lack of the life-giving sun, and use of words like "pall" as in "pall-bearer," a bringer of death. The use of the word "clear" could indicate that the true situation is there for the protagonist to recognize, if he can just put his preconceived hubris and/or foolhardy plans aside and perceive the situation for what it is: deadly danger.

However, readers lacking environmental knowledge don't need to use literary allusion to figure out what Jack London is getting at, because as the protagonist sets out on his foolish journey, London describes the exact temperature: 50 degrees Fahrenheit below zero, with a wind chill of 80 degrees below. I know from my own experience that small frozen pools of water look like plastic and are immutable, instantly refreezing at 10 to 11 degrees F above zero if anything briefly melts them. It's obvious that weather that's even that cold requires special precautions and respect. The protagonist of "To Build A Fire" shouldn't have been traveling anywhere by himself, with or without a dog, on this day. He sealed his fate the moment he set out in this story and the rest of the story is actually an explication of a series of encounters with the extreme, hostile, ultra-cold environment that to this day, the great majority of readers don't always fully apprehend, despite the story's careful, highly-accurate descriptions of the effects of extreme sub-zero Arctic weather.

Which is to say that I am starting to think along the lines that in construction of alien worlds, or in setting stories in space, the research into as many cause-and-effect relationships as we can possibly determine is essential. This goes far beyond the usual "explosions in space are silent" and will also differ from earthbound combustion because space offers zero oxygen. Many SF stories take a path through their imagined words of a similar nature to "the man's" in "To Build A Fire."

They fail to heed the basic lesson that Jack London taught in this classic story, that human beings, no matter what they believe in safe circumstances, live in a world that is beyond their control. Because it's true, and it's a part of what it is to be human, it's hard to think that this lesson wouldn't apply even more strongly regarding characters in stories set outside of the familiar Earthbound environment.

Comments

And . . . Man vs. Nature. By the way, the above online compendium invites readers to contribute a story conflict that doesn't fit into the above 7 categories. Taking the terms literally, I can think of one right off the top of my head: man vs. woman.

OK OK . . . that was a "joke" - this is about the classic plot conflict of man and woman and child vs. nature.

Implicit in these stories is the approach and assumptions of the author. Is "nature" an adversary with a motive and goals? The classic story that is taught as an example of this plot is Jack London's story "To Build A Fire." This story contains numerous accurate details of extreme sub-zero weather. The unnamed protagonist, "man," (some feel that the dog, who survives the ordeal, is a better hero - I tend to agree) experiences many events that would strike terror and set off survival alarms in the heads of more experienced or less hubris-filled artic circle travelers.

I've advised people who are creating hostile (or maybe just different) science-fictional worlds to read "To Build A Fire" and pay careful attention to the use of language that indicates not just "mood," but sets mood as it also communicates environmental facts that menace the protagonist from the beginning of his journey to its fateful end.

For example, right in the first paragraph: "There was no sun or hint
of sun, though there was not a cloud in the sky. It was a clear day, and yet
there seemed an intangible pall over the face of things, a subtle gloom that
made the day dark, and that was due to the absence of sun."

A "literary" explication would refer to darkness, gloom, lack of the life-giving sun, and use of words like "pall" as in "pall-bearer," a bringer of death. The use of the word "clear" could indicate that the true situation is there for the protagonist to recognize, if he can just put his preconceived hubris and/or foolhardy plans aside and perceive the situation for what it is: deadly danger.

However, readers lacking environmental knowledge don't need to use literary allusion to figure out what Jack London is getting at, because as the protagonist sets out on his foolish journey, London describes the exact temperature: 50 degrees Fahrenheit below zero, with a wind chill of 80 degrees below. I know from my own experience that small frozen pools of water look like plastic and are immutable, instantly refreezing at 10 to 11 degrees F above zero if anything briefly melts them. It's obvious that weather that's even that cold requires special precautions and respect. The protagonist of "To Build A Fire" shouldn't have been traveling anywhere by himself, with or without a dog, on this day. He sealed his fate the moment he set out in this story and the rest of the story is actually an explication of a series of encounters with the extreme, hostile, ultra-cold environment that to this day, the great majority of readers don't always fully apprehend, despite the story's careful, highly-accurate descriptions of the effects of extreme sub-zero Arctic weather.

Which is to say that I am starting to think along the lines that in construction of alien worlds, or in setting stories in space, the research into as many cause-and-effect relationships as we can possibly determine is essential. This goes far beyond the usual "explosions in space are silent" and will also differ from earthbound combustion because space offers zero oxygen. Many SF stories take a path through their imagined words of a similar nature to "the man's" in "To Build A Fire."

They fail to heed the basic lesson that Jack London taught in this classic story, that human beings, no matter what they believe in safe circumstances, live in a world that is beyond their control. Because it's true, and it's a part of what it is to be human, it's hard to think that this lesson wouldn't apply even more strongly regarding characters in stories set outside of the familiar Earthbound environment.

Amy Sterling Casil, edited by Dario Ciriello: Panverse TwoThe second of Dario Ciriello's all-novella series. There's a reader review up and you'll definitely have to order this book, because I can tell that the "reviewer" didn't bother to read my story and appears to be doing a Harriet Klausner.

Algis Budrys: Hard Landing (Questar Science Fiction)My adored A.J. - passed away June 9, 2008. This is my personal favorite book of his, and is the novel most recently published (1993). You will need to order a used copy of this small Warner paperback. It is of the highest literary quality. I am so grateful that I told him that in hard, solid writing - as soon as I'd read it.

Amy Sterling Casil: Without AbsolutionMy first collection - short fiction and poetry - from 1998 to 2000. Does not include "To Kiss the Star," but does include "Jonny Punkinhead." With introduction by James P. Blaylock.

Book View Cafe Authors: Rocket Boy and the Geek GirlsThe mind tells the story--but the heart inspires it with dreams of what might be waiting Out There. With evocative stories of lost comrades, alien first contacts, and strange, often unexpected confrontations with evolving science, Rocket Boy And The Geek Girls embraces both our pulp-dream past and cutting-edge future.
Thirteen authors (fifteen if you count pseudonyms) from the Book View Café got together one rainy Saturday afternoon with a big bowl of popcorn and reruns of Buck Rogers. They started comparing short stories and a new anthology took form.
Rare reprints, hard-to-find favorites and new tales all combine in this one-of-a-kind story collection, available exclusively from Book View Press.
What happens when thirteen authors get to giggling over implausible titles for the collection? They choose the most illogical and then they have to write something to go with it. So, yes, there are three flash fiction versions of Rocket Boy and the Geek Girls.
Stories by: Vonda N. McIntyre, Brenda W. Clough, Katharine Kerr, Judith Tarr, P.R. Frost, Pati Nagle, Madeleine Robins, Nancy Jane Moore, Sarah Zettel, Amy Sterling Casil, Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, Jennifer Stevenson, Sylvia Kelso, C.L. Anderson, and Irene Radford

Book View Cafe Authors: Mad Science CaféFrom the age of steam and the heirs of Dr. Frankenstein to the asteroid belt to the halls of Miskatonic University, the writers at Book View Café have concocted a beakerful of quaint, dangerous, sexy, clueless, genius, insane scientists, their assistants (sometimes equally if not even more deranged, not to mention bizarre), friends, test subjects, and adversaries.